Thamra bin Rifqa

Thamra bin Rifqa (6 October 1958-16 April 2007) was a member of al-Qaeda from Malaysia. A financier of the organization, he was one of the leaders of the Malaysian cell of the group and was known to live in Pakistan in the 1990s. He was killed in a bombing in North-West Pakistan in 2007.

Biography
Thamra bin Rifqa was born on 6 October 1958 in Teluk Intan, Malaysia. His father Rifqa bin Rauf was a Sunni Muslim Malay, while his mother Salama Wei was a Hui Chinese Muslim from Penang. Thamra bin Rifqa grew up in a wealthy family, as Rifqa bin Rauf owned a law firm. Thamra became a radical Muslim in 1979 when he heard about the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and he decided to join the Mujahideen in Pakistan. He became a major leader of the "Malaysian Cabal", a group of 100 Malaysian foreign fighters from Malaysia who sought to fight for jihad against their enemies. Thamra was trained as a fighter by the Pakistani ISI, and he helped to attack the Soviet forces at Khost in October 1986. Thamra also funded the Mujahideen with his own money, and helped them achieve victory in 1988. Thamra later stayed the course and continued the fight against the communist Afghan government in 1988-1992, and from 1992 to 1996 he fought against the Northern Alliance faction of the Mujahideen alongside the Taliban. Under the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Thamra bin Rifqa lived in Kandahar and was at peace until 2001, when the United States invaded. Thamra fought against the US Army before fleeing across the border to Pakistan, living in Waziristan in North-West Pakistan. Thamra was able to live in the Swat Valley in Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan-controlled area, and hid out from the Americans. However, he was killed by a drone strike in 2007.